Getting A Tax Refund

[iloveglee]

I wonder if anyone can answer a question for me about getting overpaid tax back. My grand-daughter has been having problems with her tax this last year, due to them thinking she had 3 jobs and sharing her tax code out between her employer and two non existent employers!! I think this happened due to an employer not sending a P45, and the new starter forms not getting filled in correctly. In fact she had only one job when she was earning a full wage, but due to the fact that her tax code was very wrong, were stopping far too much tax. She's been trying to get in touch with HMRC but it's kind of soul destroying, and I said I'd ask on here.

She should not have paid any tax at all during 2020 to 2021, as she didn't start a properly paid job until september. Before that she had earned a bit of money from a previous job, but not enough to put her into tax. She has paid above £1000 so is due for a refund. We looked on the government website, that said this would all be made right through pay once the tax code was corrected. It has been corrected this pay date, but there was no refund. But of course we are now into a new tax year.

I was always of the impression that if you had overpaid, you had to claim back the overpayment once you entered into a new tax year. For many years, I had to complete a tax return due to having income from rental, so mine was always straightened out from doing that. But regular PAYE who don't have to complete a return, I really don't know.

If it's correct that it will get refunded via her pay then she probably doesn't need to do anything, but would have thought it would have come back to her this month.

[Buenchico]

Has she worked her way through this?
https://www.gov.uk/claim-tax-refund/y

[Hopkirk]

Each tax year is treated separately, so anything paid before April 6th won't be refunded in later pay.

Officially you have to wait for it to be calculated some time between June and October. It might be worth ringing, but expect to be in a long queue just to told the above.

[iloveglee]

I don't think she has ploughed her way through anything on the basis that she has no clue how to do any of this. I am trying to educate her on all things tax/financial etc on account of how kids learn nothing of these necessary skills at school (Martin Lewis the moneysavingexpert man is always on about this)!! It's difficult to know what stuff to show her, when she doesn't know what she doesn't know, if you get my meaning.

We tend to do each thing as it crops up, with one of them it's mortgages as she's about to embark up on one. With this one its issues of tax. I have to freely admit I am not familiar with the form that tells you have overpaid (or underpaid) tax, as I always completed a tax return so it never arose.

So it would seem she has to wait until possibly October to get this money back. I did think that you didn't automatically get it back in the next pay once the tax code was corrected, unless you were within the same tax year.

I will relay all this to her, as this has all been a bit complicated I wonder if she'll get a P60 at the usual time. If all the information she'll get if she calls them, then there is very little point wasting her time. Last time we had to contact them, and this was pre covid, we were on hold for 2 hours.

The main thing is that she knows not to expect it in the next pay and to wait to be informed by HMRC of her tax calculation. At the end of the day it would probably be quicker to complete a tax return, although I don't know if they accept one from people who don't need to.

[Buenchico]

Thanks for your reply. That link of mine looks fairly straightforward, just asking just one simple question at each stage, so it might be worth your grand-daughter seeing if it can help to point her in the right direction.

[THECORBYLOON]

I was notified of a tax rebate by letter back in June/July last year.

I was given the option of entering some details online in order to get a payment transferred to my bank a few weeks later or I could do nothing and wait yonks for a cheque.

I chose the former and it went in on time.

[ToraToraTora]

just get her to complete a tax return for the 20-21 tax year, right now. no waiting necessary.

[bobbinwales]

Yes, follow Buenchico's link. In my job at work I've helped quite a few colleagues with tax codes and rebates as it can be a problem for some partimer's, zero hours or temporary staff who may have a few part time/temp roles over the year. HMRC does normally sort out any overpayment's or underpayment's and notify you by around July with the option of fast payment by direct transfer but with all the complications of furlough claim's for them and employer's there could be a backlog or delays this year.
My experience was that for those who dont like claiming online a neatly set out letter showing all earnings by employer and all tax deductions with copies of P60s would speed the matter up. Yes the HMRC have all this information allready but it can prompt then to clear yours up and get it out of the way early.
But the online claim is the best first step.

For next year my advice to anyone is to get an online tax account. You can login at any time and see your earning's, tax code's and deduction's and notify them of any jobs that have finished or problems. Theres allso an online chat facility for those wiyh a login which has allways worked whenever have had to get a problem resolved. The problems this year could of been resolved during the year.

Phoning to me is allways a last resort as it can be sooooo frustrating to get through

[iloveglee]

Thanks everybody for all the very useful information which I have relayed to her. She did plough through the you.gov link and of course now, we are in a new tax year, answer is as was stated, they send a P800 between june and september.

I also got her to set up an online HMRC account, of course myself and my husband have one due to our having to complete tax returns, but didn't think of her having one, as with PAYE isnt really necessary. It's a good while since we had to have anything to do with HMRC so it didn't cross my horizon.

I knew I'd get good answers on here, I've never been failed yet, so thanks again.

However, she has done this, and it's very useful, it does give her all the necessary information she needs, and the live chat, when it is live is probably better than trying to ring them.